*
The idea of Indonesia leading the third world was not
only thinkable half a century ago, it even appeared as reality — briefly.
Since that time there has been some attempt at raising
Indonesia’s international profile as a leading Muslim nation, and its visibility
and global import have increased. But it is not yet a country that other
Muslims look to for leadership. Even in its heyday, there was a direct
relationship between the respect accorded to Indonesian Muslims by fellow
believers of other nationalities and Indonesia’s political significance on the
global stage. Interest in, and appreciation of, Indonesian Muslim culture
hardly seemed to follow as a result.
Indonesia’s apparent lack of impact on Muslim thought
and action is remarkable, as it is the world’s largest Muslim nation, currently
numbering 211 million devotees — more than there are Muslim Arabs. South Asian
Muslims jointly number 480 million, twice the number of those in South East
Asia, and they have had a much more salient impact beyond their own region.
Indonesian Muslims, on the other hand, have always appeared eager to borrow
from other Muslim cultures — and many Indonesians consider ‘Arab’ Islam as more
authoritative than local versions.
But Indonesian Islam boasts a number of unique features
which draw the admiration of foreign Muslim observers. The pattern of
associational life is one of these. Both Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU)
have been around for so long they appear to be part of the societal landscape;
but nowhere else in the Muslim world do we find anything quite like them. These
two associations enjoy strong legitimacy as representatives of broad
segments of the Indonesian ummah (Muslim community). In
particular, they prevailed as strong embodiments of civil society throughout
the 20th century, and have arguably served as a stabilising force in the
democratic transformation of the country. Leaders of the organisations have
been invited to various international conferences, but, until recently, neither
NU nor Muhammadiyah had played a leading role on the world stage. During the
past decade, these associations have shown increasing confidence and taken some
initiatives to make their mark internationally through initiatives like the
International Islamic Scholars Conference, which was first convened in Jakarta
in 2004.
Indonesia has also produced some remarkable Muslim
thinker-activists: men as diverse as Tan Malaka, Haji Misbach, Agus Salim,
Mohammad Natsir, Kartosuwiryo, Nurcholish Madjid, Dawam Rahardjo, Kuntowijoyo
and Abdurrahman Wahid. With very few exceptions, none of their writings have
been translated into Arabic or English, and so their work has never made the
impact in other parts of the world that many would judge it deserves.
There are a number of possible explanations for the lack
of interest in Indonesian Muslim thought, none of which is satisfactory. First,
Muslim activists in the Middle East are more interested in the demographic and
political weight of the Indonesianummah than its possible
contribution to Islamic thought, because of the perception that Indonesian
Islam tends to be syncretistic and less than rigorous. Second, it is believed
that much Indonesian Muslim writing specifically concerns the Indonesian
context, and is not relevant to other nations. This may be true of the earlier
writers, but the work of the Muslim intellectuals who flourished under the New
Order, and after, would be relevant to many other Muslim societies.
The reluctance of Indonesian Muslims to search the
international limelight is remarkable considering their achievements. For
example, in the Muslim feminist movement, there is a broad awareness of the
special significance and achievements of the Indonesian experience, but like
other thinkers, activists and organisers, its leaders never sought international
attention, nor thought of spreading their ideas beyond the confines
ofIndonesia. It was thinkers and activists elsewhere who ‘discovered’ them,
found their work valuable, and made them into role models and major
participants in the international networks.
Indonesia has not regained the position of political
leadership it held briefly among Muslim nations, but its visibility has
significantly increased since the fall of the Suharto regime, and there is a
new confidence among Indonesian leaders urging them to take initiatives in the
international arena. Equally, indonesia’s impact on contemporary Muslim thought
still remains minimal, especially when compared to other large cultural regions
such as Turkey and South Asia. But perhaps this is inherent to much of what is
original in Indonesian Muslim discourse — the defence of pluralism, and variety
and local colour in the cultural expressions of Islam — as opposed to the
homogenising transnational tendencies seen elsewhere.
Martin van Bruinessen is Chair for the Comparative
Study of Contemporary Muslim Societies at Utrecht University.
This is an abridged version of a paper presented at the 2011 Indonesia Update, the Australian National University.
This is an abridged version of a paper presented at the 2011 Indonesia Update, the Australian National University.
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